Budgeting Your Remodel

Budgeting Your Remodel

How exciting it is to begin remodeling a house, isn’t it? From the very moment you thought of it to the very last piece of construction equipment leaving your house never to come back.

I venture to think that it all started when you were walking past the bathroom and spotted a stain in one of the tiles, and thought “it’s time to change those, and now that we’re at it, the staircase and the carpets and the kitchen…” and so on, and so on. I also venture to picturing you being all excited to start your new life in your new home and I’m right there with you. So if I may, I’d love to offer you some advice about managing your budget; I hope you find it helpful.

Sit and think about your budget carefully: My first advice to you is thoroughly think about the kind of money you want to be spending on this project, think of ideal scenarios where everything that you want fits in the perfect figure, and also worse case scenarios where you get half of you want in a number that is beyond you. Thinking in scenarios will avert any surprises and you’ll be able to work easily with your home contractor, thus avoiding any delays to your project

The real cost of things: “As seen on TV…” When it comes to house remodeling this is hardly realistic. Do some real research about pricings, ask around, delve into the web and see what’s the real cost of that bathtub you like so much. More often than not, the real price of things can vary depending on the area that you live, complexity of the fixtures, and other factors alike, so work with your contractor, they will be able to tell you what are your best options and formulate a contractor estimate. What I can tell you with absolute certainty is that you will be needing a percentage of that number (20% according to Forbes) you’ve thought of, initially, to be spend in unforeseen costs that will inevitably happen

Know thy budget: Yes, I wrote it as a commandment because more often than not we don’t really pay much attention to what we’re spending on until someone brings us the check! Your budget will be divided into hard costs and soft costs, the former are the materials needed for the structure, whilst the latter are the costs needed for permits and human resources. So pay close attention to the figures in all of the concepts.

The most important thing of them all is to be fully aware of what you are doing before you go at it, full on. This will avoid having an unfinished project that you are not entirely comfortable with. Build your dream house, not your nightmarish prison.